Here are a few bad decisions from the world of business
that have become famous -- and are downright humorous in hindsight. Some
people learned from their mistakes and moved on (Bill Gates.) Some,
sadly, faded into history (Decca).
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981
"Drill
for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try to find oil? You're
crazy." -- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to
drill for oil in 1859
"But what ... is it good for?" -- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
"There
is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." --Ken Olson,
president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
"The
wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay
for a message sent to nobody in particular?" --David Sarnoff's
associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the
1920s. I hope he fired all of them.
"The concept is interesting
and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must
be feasible." -- A Yale University management professor in response to
Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.[FedEx])
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." -- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
"Airplanes
are interesting toys but of no military value." -- Marechal Ferdinand
Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre. Wasn't France
bombed in World War Two?
"I'm just glad it will be Clark Gable
falling on his face and not Gary Cooper" -- Gary Cooper on his decision
not to take the leading role in "Gone With the Wind"
And my three favorites:
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." --Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962
"This
'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a
means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." --
Western-Union internal memo, 1876. Alexander Bell offered the patent
for the Telephone to Western-Union in 1876 for $100,000. They declined.
The telephone patent has been estimated as the most valuable patent of
all time. Bell's Company, AT&T, later aquired Western-Union. Special
Note -- In 1971 AT&T turned down an offer to own the Internet. Oh
well.
"So we went to Atari and said, "Hey we've got this amazing
thing, even built with some of your parts, what do you think about
funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our
salary, we'll come work for you." And they said, "No". So then we went
to Hewlett Packard and they said, "Hey, we don't need you; you haven't
even got through college yet." -- Apple Computer Co-Founder Steve Jobs
on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in he and Steve Wozniak's
personal computer. HP recovered nicely (though not quite as nicely, I
suspect as they would have if they'd chanced it) but where is Atari
today.
Special Mention -- Couldn't find a quote for these two, but...
In 1933 Coca-Cola declined an opportunity to buy it's then-bankrupt and insignificant rival Pepsi - Cola
In
1999, Excite declined the opportunity to buy Google for $1 million.
It's possible that ANY quote on this from Excite would be -- a-hum --
unprintable. ;)
About the author: http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/mark-hester/30502
What makes someone a leader anyway?
Such a simple question, and yet it continues to vex some of the best thinkers in business.
We've written several books on leadership, and yet it's a rare thing to actually pause to define leadership.
Let’s start with what leadership is not…
Leadership has nothing to do with seniority or one’s position in the hierarchy of a company.
Too many talk about a company’s leadership referring to the senior
most executives in the organization. They are just that, senior
executives. Leadership doesn’t automatically happen when you reach a
certain pay grade. Hopefully you find it there, but there are no
guarantees.
Leadership has nothing to do with titles.
Similar to the point above, just because you have a C-level title,
doesn’t automatically make you a "leader." We often stress the fact that
you don’t need a title to lead. You can be a leader in your workplace,
your neighborhood, or your family, all without having a title.
Leadership has nothing to do with personal attributes.
Say the word "leader" and most people think of a domineering,
take-charge, charismatic individual. People often think of icons from
history like General Patton or President Lincoln. But leadership isn’t
an adjective. We don’t need to be extroverted or charismatic to practice
leadership. And those with charisma don’t automatically lead.
Leadership isn’t management.
This is the big one. Leadership and management are not synonymous.
You have 15 people in your downline and P&L responsibility? Good for
you, hopefully you are a good manager. Good management is needed.
Managers need to plan, measure, monitor, coordinate, solve, hire, fire,
and so many other things. Managers spend most of their time managing things. Leaders lead people.
So, again, what makes a leader?
Let’s see how some of the most respected business thinkers of our
time define leadership, and let’s consider what’s wrong with their
definitions.
Peter Drucker: "The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers."
Really? This instance of tautology is so simplistic as to be
dangerous. A new Army Captain is put in the command of 200 soldiers. He
never leaves his room, or utters a word to the men and women in his
unit. Perhaps routine orders are given through a subordinate. By default
his troops have to "follow" orders. Is the Captain really a leader?
Commander yes, leader no. Drucker is of course a brilliant thinker, but
his definition is too simple.
Warren Bennis: "Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality."
Every spring you have a vision for a garden, and with lots of work
carrots and tomatoes become a reality. Are you a leader? No, you’re a
gardener. Bennis’ definition seems to have forgotten "others."
Bill Gates: "As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others."
This
definition includes "others" and empowerment is a good thing. But to
what end? We've seen many empowered "others" in life, from rioting
hooligans to Google workers who were so misaligned with the rest of the
company they found themselves unemployed. Gates’ definition lacks goals
and vision.
John Maxwell: "Leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less."
We like minimalism but this reduction is too much. A robber with a
gun has "influence" over his victim. A manager has the power to fire
team members which provides a lot of influence. But does this influence
make a robber or a manager a leader? Maxwell’s definition omits the source of influence.
So what is leadership?
DEFINITION: Leadership is a process of social influence which maximizes the efforts of others toward the achievement of a greater good.
Notice the key elements of this definition:
- Leadership stems from social influence, not authority or power.
- Leadership requires others, and that implies they don’t need to be "direct reports."
- No mention of personality traits, attributes, or even a title; there are many styles, many paths to effective leadership.
- It includes a greater good, not influence with no intended outcome.
Leadership is a mindset in action. So don’t wait for the title.
Leadership isn’t something that anyone can give you — you have to earn
it and claim it for yourself.
Dr. Travis Bradberry is the award-winning co-author of the #1 bestselling book, "Emotional Intelligence 2.0," and the cofounder of TalentSmart, the world's leading provider of emotional intelligence tests and training,
serving more than 75% of Fortune 500 companies. His bestselling books
have been translated into 25 languages and are available in more than
150 countries. Dr. Bradberry has written for, or been covered by,
Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., USA Today,
The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Harvard Business
Review.
Listening
1) "When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." - Ernest Hemingway
2)
"The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be
understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them." - Ralph Nichols
Storytelling
3) "Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." -Robert McKee
4) "If you tell me, it’s an essay. If you show me, it’s a story." —Barbara Greene
Authenticity
5) "I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier." -Oprah Winfrey
6) "Authenticity
is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet - thinking, saying,
feeling, and doing the same thing - consistently. This builds trust, and
followers love leaders they can trust." -Lance Secretan
Transparency
7) "As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth." -John Whittier
8) "There is no persuasiveness more effectual than the transparency of a single heart, of a sincere life." -Joseph Berber Lightfoot
Team Playing
9) "Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds." -SEAL Team Saying
10) "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." - Helen Keller
Responsiveness
11) "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." -Charles Swindoll
12) '"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." - Bill Gates
Adaptability
13) "When you're finished changing, you're finished." -Ben Franklin
14) "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." –Charles Darwin
Passion
15) "The only way to do great work is to love the work you do." -Steve Jobs
16) "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." -Albert Einstein
Surprise and Delight
17) "A
true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which
others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless." -Charles de Gaulle
18) “Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.” - Boris Pasternak
Simplicity
19) "Less isn't more; just enough is more." -Milton Glaser
20) “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” -Leonardo daVinci
Gratefulness
21) "I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." -Gilbert K Chesterton
22) "The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude." -Friedrich Nietzsche
Leadership
23) “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” — Peter F. Drucker
24) "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." —John Quincy Adams
25) "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." —John F. Kennedy
Here are a few bad decisions from the world of business
that have become famous -- and are downright humorous in hindsight. Some
people learned from their mistakes and moved on (Bill Gates.) Some,
sadly, faded into history (Decca).
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981
"Drill
for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try to find oil? You're
crazy." -- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to
drill for oil in 1859
"But what ... is it good for?" -- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
"There
is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." --Ken Olson,
president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
"The
wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay
for a message sent to nobody in particular?" --David Sarnoff's
associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the
1920s. I hope he fired all of them.
"The concept is interesting
and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must
be feasible." -- A Yale University management professor in response to
Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.[FedEx])
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." -- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
"Airplanes
are interesting toys but of no military value." -- Marechal Ferdinand
Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre. Wasn't France
bombed in World War Two?
"I'm just glad it will be Clark Gable
falling on his face and not Gary Cooper" -- Gary Cooper on his decision
not to take the leading role in "Gone With the Wind"
And my three favorites:
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." --Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962
"This
'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a
means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." --
Western-Union internal memo, 1876. Alexander Bell offered the patent
for the Telephone to Western-Union in 1876 for $100,000. They declined.
The telephone patent has been estimated as the most valuable patent of
all time. Bell's Company, AT&T, later aquired Western-Union. Special
Note -- In 1971 AT&T turned down an offer to own the Internet. Oh
well.
"So we went to Atari and said, "Hey we've got this amazing
thing, even built with some of your parts, what do you think about
funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our
salary, we'll come work for you." And they said, "No". So then we went
to Hewlett Packard and they said, "Hey, we don't need you; you haven't
even got through college yet." -- Apple Computer Co-Founder Steve Jobs
on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in he and Steve Wozniak's
personal computer. HP recovered nicely (though not quite as nicely, I
suspect as they would have if they'd chanced it) but where is Atari
today.
Special Mention -- Couldn't find a quote for these two, but...
In 1933 Coca-Cola declined an opportunity to buy it's then-bankrupt and insignificant rival Pepsi - Cola
In
1999, Excite declined the opportunity to buy Google for $1 million.
It's possible that ANY quote on this from Excite would be -- a-hum --
unprintable. ;)
About the author: http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/mark-hester/30502
Here are a few bad decisions from the world of business
that have become famous -- and are downright humorous in hindsight. Some
people learned from their mistakes and moved on (Bill Gates.) Some,
sadly, faded into history (Decca).
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981
"Drill
for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try to find oil? You're
crazy." -- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to
drill for oil in 1859
"But what ... is it good for?" -- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
"There
is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." --Ken Olson,
president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
"The
wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay
for a message sent to nobody in particular?" --David Sarnoff's
associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the
1920s. I hope he fired all of them.
"The concept is interesting
and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must
be feasible." -- A Yale University management professor in response to
Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.[FedEx])
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." -- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
"Airplanes
are interesting toys but of no military value." -- Marechal Ferdinand
Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre. Wasn't France
bombed in World War Two?
"I'm just glad it will be Clark Gable
falling on his face and not Gary Cooper" -- Gary Cooper on his decision
not to take the leading role in "Gone With the Wind"
And my three favorites:
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." --Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962
"This
'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a
means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." --
Western-Union internal memo, 1876. Alexander Bell offered the patent
for the Telephone to Western-Union in 1876 for $100,000. They declined.
The telephone patent has been estimated as the most valuable patent of
all time. Bell's Company, AT&T, later aquired Western-Union. Special
Note -- In 1971 AT&T turned down an offer to own the Internet. Oh
well.
"So we went to Atari and said, "Hey we've got this amazing
thing, even built with some of your parts, what do you think about
funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our
salary, we'll come work for you." And they said, "No". So then we went
to Hewlett Packard and they said, "Hey, we don't need you; you haven't
even got through college yet." -- Apple Computer Co-Founder Steve Jobs
on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in he and Steve Wozniak's
personal computer. HP recovered nicely (though not quite as nicely, I
suspect as they would have if they'd chanced it) but where is Atari
today.
Special Mention -- Couldn't find a quote for these two, but...
In 1933 Coca-Cola declined an opportunity to buy it's then-bankrupt and insignificant rival Pepsi - Cola
In
1999, Excite declined the opportunity to buy Google for $1 million.
It's possible that ANY quote on this from Excite would be -- a-hum --
unprintable. ;)
Mark Hester
Here are a few bad decisions from the world of business
that have become famous -- and are downright humorous in hindsight. Some
people learned from their mistakes and moved on (Bill Gates.) Some,
sadly, faded into history (Decca).
Related Articles
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981
"Drill
for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try to find oil? You're
crazy." -- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to
drill for oil in 1859
"But what ... is it good for?" -- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
"There
is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." --Ken Olson,
president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
"The
wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay
for a message sent to nobody in particular?" --David Sarnoff's
associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the
1920s. I hope he fired all of them.
"The concept is interesting
and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must
be feasible." -- A Yale University management professor in response to
Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.[FedEx])
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." -- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
"Airplanes
are interesting toys but of no military value." -- Marechal Ferdinand
Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre. Wasn't France
bombed in World War Two?
"I'm just glad it will be Clark Gable
falling on his face and not Gary Cooper" -- Gary Cooper on his decision
not to take the leading role in "Gone With the Wind"
And my three favorites:
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." --Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962
"This
'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a
means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." --
Western-Union internal memo, 1876. Alexander Bell offered the patent
for the Telephone to Western-Union in 1876 for $100,000. They declined.
The telephone patent has been estimated as the most valuable patent of
all time. Bell's Company, AT&T, later aquired Western-Union. Special
Note -- In 1971 AT&T turned down an offer to own the Internet. Oh
well.
"So we went to Atari and said, "Hey we've got this amazing
thing, even built with some of your parts, what do you think about
funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our
salary, we'll come work for you." And they said, "No". So then we went
to Hewlett Packard and they said, "Hey, we don't need you; you haven't
even got through college yet." -- Apple Computer Co-Founder Steve Jobs
on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in he and Steve Wozniak's
personal computer. HP recovered nicely (though not quite as nicely, I
suspect as they would have if they'd chanced it) but where is Atari
today.
Special Mention -- Couldn't find a quote for these two, but...
In 1933 Coca-Cola declined an opportunity to buy it's then-bankrupt and insignificant rival Pepsi - Cola
In
1999, Excite declined the opportunity to buy Google for $1 million.
It's possible that ANY quote on this from Excite would be -- a-hum --
unprintable. ;)
About the author: http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/mark-hester/30502
